"My dear friends, we are gathered here to mourn the passing of one of Metropolis's favorite sons. This tireless crusader served this city well and fought the good fight in the name of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. In the name of God, he has fallen, brutally, struck down before us. It will not only be Metropolis will mourn the passing of its favorite son, but the entire world will be a lot less safe without the presence of this benevolent man."

This funeral was extravagant, one of the greatest turn outs in all of Metropolis. Countless individuals lined up as far as the eye could see. The rich and the famous showed up to pay their respects, along with celebrities. There were people there who might have not seen eye to eye with the deceased, but yet they showed up to pay their respects.

Naturally, given the scope of this funeral, the press was most certainly in attendance to say goodbye to this situation.

"We might never know the pain and the sorrow he felt in his final hours when he went up against a true monster that crushed him. The power against the beast that he fought, must have been forged in the pit of fire by Lucifer himself. No matter, a true benevolent American hero has passed on today. He might not have been born in Metropolis, but we have adopted him as one of our own. We can never appreciate or thank the efforts of the deceased enough, and he was a man who is now under the guardianship of the Lord. His humble servant returns to the pearly gates, to serve a far greater power. May only God have mercy on our souls now."

People grew silent. Many had thought that the priest was pouring it on just a little bit tight.

"When doomsday struck, our hero looked it in the eyes, and said that I am not afraid," the priest continued. "He was willing to look the beast in the eye, willing to forge his way through hellfire. His noble sacrifice allowed him to serve the people one more time, and for his bravery and his purity, he has been welcomed in by the Father."

The priest paused. He could have been a rather charismatic politician if he had chosen another line of work.

"Let us pay our respects to a man who has fallen for us all, Alexander Lionel Luthor."

The priest prepared to lead everyone in a prayer. It was a closed casket funeral; no one had been allowed to even view Lex's body. Whispers were that it had been mangled too badly to be seen.

There was one individual who was not praying, she was thinking. The dark haired reporter looked on, with her violet eyes. She could see the false mourning of some of the people around her. These men were business rivals of Luthor.

They were likely plotting to seize control of his company. Luthor had no heirs, as far as Lois knew. Although she expected some bastard children to pop out of the woodwork, and try and claim hold of the throne.

Maybe he had a long lost sister, or something, Lois didn't know. Lex was a self-made orphan. Oh sure, the official word of the death of his father was that it was an accident, but Lois knew better.

Lois casually turned towards the woman sitting next to other. She looked rather subdued. Her dark hair hung a bit down past her shoulders. Her blue eyes rested behind a pair of glasses. She wore a nice female business suit that formed onto her body. Her head hung down and it was obvious that she had a light of conflicting emotion.

Lois knew that she couldn't believe it. She had not been able to get the full story, but the best she could peace together was that Lex lost his fucking mind because one of his experiments and flipped out in an attempt to kill Supergirl and Superwoman.

Unfortunately for Lex, that left him dead, and everyone was a hero when they died. Lois knew that the truth would come out about Lex's death eventually.

Right now, she had to listen to a glowing tribute regarding how great Lex Luthor was and how he was a humble servant of God. From what Lois remembered, Lex had a God Complex, but that was about the only thing that connected him to the man upstairs.

"So, this is how it ends?" a brunette said behind them.

"Yes, Kara, that's how it ends," Claire said in a distracted voice.

The brunette was normally a blonde, but she was wearing a wig and a pair of glasses as a disguise. She sat next to a blue eyed redhead and a dark haired female.

Her name was Kara Kent and she worked with Lois's cousin, Chloe, on the Daily Planet Blog. She was looking at her cousin Claire, with the gravest concern. She was not taking what happened all that well, even if what happened could be only rested on the shoulders of one man and that was Lex Luthor.

"And now, as the soul of Lex Luthor is released, let us say a prayer in thanks for the noble man."

Kara barely avoided snorting. She wouldn't be surprised if Lex wrote the script for his own funeral on the off chance he died. The man seemed just vain enough to do it.

"So, Lex Luthor is dead, and a bunch of phony assholes went to his funeral and all boo-hooed his death," a shrill voice said from the radio. "Guess they all saw the light and saw what kind of a monster that Superwoman is. To think someone like that used their powers like that, to bully honest people. Sure, Lex should rot in hell, and those same people who boo-hooed him are lining up to piss on his grave when no one is looking, but you got to wonder if she drove him that way. Thought that he seemed too obsessed with Superwoman myself. The bitch is asking for something flaunting herself around town in those tight leather pants."

Claire Kent sat in the middle of the townhouse that she and Lois shared. She couldn't be bothered to turn the radio station. The shrill tone of shock jock Leslie Willis bombarded her with these heated barbs.

She was the type of woman who everyone complained about, yet, everyone listened to.

A knock on the door brought Claire out of the stupor that she was in.

"It's unlocked."

The door opened and Kara walked inside, still in her Kara Kent disguise. She walked over and wrinkled her nose when she heard Willis blabbering on the radio.

She marched over and turned it off. "You would think that was the last thing you need to listen to at the moment."

"Kara," Claire said to her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm stopping by to make sure that you're okay," Kara said. She stopped Claire from saying a half assed response that she was okay. "And you're not okay."

"Superwoman disappeared after the final battle with Lex," Claire reminded her. "And she disappeared for good reason."

"And what good reason is that?" Kara inquired.

"I don't have any powers," Claire reminded her. "Lex died in a fiery explosion, but not before he exposed me to Gold Kryptonite."

Kara grew pale suddenly when she heard about that news. She looked Claire dead on in the eye. "Gold Kryptonite, please tell me your kidding?"

"Kara, I wish that I was," Claire sighed.

"How big of a piece was it?" Kara asked her. She refused to believe that Claire didn't have any options.

"It was big enough to strip me of my powers," Claire said. "You remember what Lara said, all it takes is less than a minute and all my powers are gone."

"There's got to be some way to restore them," Kara persisted stubbornly.

Granted, Gold K was the rarest of all Kryptonite out there. It had never popped up before now, but Lex somehow managed to get his hands on a piece or maybe synthesize the right chemicals to create it from the green stuff.

"Kara, you know as well as I do, there are no take backs with Gold K," Claire answered.

She got up to her feet and walked over towards the window. The dark haired heroine stared out into the city. "I hate to say it, but my life as I knew it is pretty much over."

"You're just overreacting because you lost your powers," Kara said.

She folded her arms underneath her chest and glared at her cousin. Kara was not in the mood for some angst fueled trip of guilt. According to Chloe, they happened a fair lot when Claire was in her teenage years. Given that Kara was in stasis at that time, she couldn't vouch for it at all.

"I have to admit, I wondered what it was like being normal," Claire said. Her voice had regrets in it, but at the same time, was thoughtful. "Guess I'm going to find out, aren't I?"

"It might not be so bad, and it might not be permanent," Kara suggested gently. She pulled her cousin into a tight hug. "We don't really know what the effects of Gold K are in the end. It could be temporary, you know."

"I hope that you're right, Kara," Claire said. She leaned back and frowned. "It's really funny when you think about it."

Kara raised her eyebrow and wondered why Claire could think something like this was funny.

She was only too willing to elaborate. "I always thought, wondered really, what it would be like to be normal. And now that I am and it's weird."

Kara placed her hands on her hips sternly. "Even without your powers, you're still anything but normal Claire."

"Yes," Claire said. "Don't you have to get to school?"

"Don't have any classes for a couple of hours," Kara remarked. She pressed on to ask Claire about something "Don't you have to get to work?"

"Called in sick today," Claire answered. "My mind isn't all there."

Kara thought it must have been serious if Claire was going to miss work like that.

"Straight and narrow Claire Kent, playing hooky from work," Kara said. She shook her head. "I've got to go anyway….the city isn't going to patrol itself."

Claire figured that was going to come up, well better now than later.

"Kara, about that," Claire said. Kara stopped short and turned around. "I'd prefer that you hang up the cape. Metropolis survived for years before us, it would survive for years without us."

"You want me to just give up because you lost your powers?" Kara asked. She wondered of the Gold K also altered her cousin's brain and made her more irrational than normal.

"You really need to focus on your studies, Kara," Claire protested. Kara gave a heaving sigh and she looked her cousin directly in the eye. Dead on in the eye as it might have been.

"No one said that you were," Claire said. Kara gave her one of those looks, as if to say "seriously?" "Alright, plenty of people made that assumption, but I didn't. But, I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I didn't want to see you get hurt either," Kara said to her.

She couldn't help, but think if she was there, then things might have been a little bit different. If she was there, then they might have been able to defeat Lex. Kara wasn't sorry that Lex died. Claire might have been. Her own insane attempt to salvage the villain was likely the reason that she was currently without powers.

"I've got to meet Donna and Barbara," Kara told her. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine," Claire said.

It was bad enough that she felt useless without her powers, did people honestly have to ask that she was fine? Constantly, like every five minutes, did they really have to answer that?

"I'll come back after school," Kara said. She gave Claire another hug. It lingered for only a few seconds before she pulled away. Things seemed awkward after the argument that they had, likely because they were.

This was going to be a long next couple of weeks. Kara had that sick sense that crime might pick up soon. The word would spread soon Superwoman was out of the picture and the game would get ugly in Metropolis.

Claire did have a point that Kara should really focus on her studies a little bit. She was on her way to Metropolis University to do just that.

Kara saw her two girlfriends standing there. A redhead with blue eyes smiled. She wore a white top that fit around her bust and a blowing black skirt, along with stockings and stylish looking boots. She was a fairly tall girl, although she was shorter compared to her two friends.

A dark haired with blue eyes and a distinctively Greek complexion followed the redhead. She wore a tight black top that was barely able to contain her fairly sizeable breasts. It showed a little bit of cleavage and at certain angles rode up to show a toned stomach. Her dazzling legs showed off in a pair of shorts that fit tightly around her. It was actually fairly conservative compared to what other girls might be wearing.

The nineteen year old girl smiled when she greeted her friends. Donna Troy was the dark haired girl, she was also nineteen years old, and Barbara Gordon was the redhead, just a bit older than them at the ae of twenty.

"Kara, good morning!" Barbara said in a chipper tone when she greeted her. "It's good to see you today."

"Good to see you, Babs, Donna," Kara said. She stepped over and greeted them warmly.

"Diana sends her regards," Donna said. "She and Mother were only in town to attend Luthor's funeral. And Diana wanted to check up on Claire."

"Why did they have to duck and run so fast?" Kara asked.

Donna shrugged in response. "I honestly don't know, Kara. They just told me that it was an internal manner on Themyscira and told me not to worry about it.

"Which means that you're obsessing over it," Barbara suggested.

"I can only do so much," Donna said, shrugging. "They did tell me to focus on my studies and one of the reasons that I was allowed to go school with you two is if I excelled at a certain grade point average."

"Which you have," Kara said.

"Only because Barbara here has been able to tutor me," Donna replied.

Barbara shook her head. "Well, it was a bit of a culture shock for you….for both of you."

"I sort of understood everything," Kara answered.

Granted, she came from a world that had been so far advanced that anything so primitive like the technology on Earth was jarring. She had to dumb down what she knew not to overwhelm the teachers. Kara did have the knowledge to teach most of the courses she took, but there was a catch. It was at a level that no one on Earth might be able to comprehend.

"It must be rough on you, with the burden of protecting the entire city falling on you," Donna said. She grabbed Kara's hand and squeezed it. "You seem stressed out."

"I am stressed out," Kara confirmed.

"Told you," Donna murmured out of the corner of her mouth.

Barbara looked at Kara wisely, taking her other hand. "You just had been to see Claire, haven't you?"

"That transparent?" Kara asked.

"Yep," Barbara said. She looked around to see if no one happened to be lurking around. "You know the two of us will help you, if you'll have us."

"Hey, I might need all of the help that I can get," Kara said. "But, things have been fine, there has been no trouble."

Barbara sighed. "Kara, I need to introduce you to a man named Murphy. He tends to mess things up at the worst possible times and make everything go wrong at the worst possible times."

"I don't like this Murphy guy already, he's a real jerk," Donna said. She cracked her knuckles. "Why don't we track him down and beat him up?"

Barbara could barely keep a straight face at how determined Donna was to beat up this Murphy guy. "He's not a real person…he's some kind of metaphor about tempting fate….wow, I'm explaining this, to you, aren't I?"

"Culture shock," Kara said, shaking her head.

"So, how is Claire coping?" Barbara asked.

"She's in shock," Kara said. "She got stripped of her powers and as much as she hoped to be normal, I think that even she has come to the conclusion that her powers are her identity."

"That bad?" Donna asked. "Maybe it's just temporary."

"Gold Kryptonite, there are no take backs with Gold K," Kara said. "It has the ability to strip a super powered Kryptonian of their powers, even though a limited exposure"

"But, maybe it's temporary," Barbara said. She looked grim. "We don't know because the only piece of gold Kryptonite on Earth has been destroyed."

"Maybe you should pass on a message to your friend in Gotham City," Kara said.

Barbara shrugged. "It's worth a shot….but we need to get to class."

The three of them couldn't be late, that much was for sure.

"The death of Lex Luthor is a big thing, everyone's talking about it," Kara said. She gave a heaving sigh and made sure that her laptop and her books were secure in her bag.

They couldn't go into Met-U today without hearing about Lex Luthor this or Lex Luthor that. They swore that the man was being upgraded to Sainthood. The LuthorCorp PR machine was in full swing today.

"That is if he's dead in the first place," Barbara mused.

"Why, they had a funeral and everything?" Donna asked in confusion.

Barbara laughed. "Yeah, a funeral where the casket was closed and no one looked at the body. Seems awfully suspicious, doesn't it?"

It did seem like second nature for someone who had been trained by the World's Greatest Detective to be paranoid by default over things like this.

"The body was blown up and what was left, it was too grisly for anyone to see," Kara said. She had to admit Barbara made her have her doubts about whether or not it was Luthor was in that casket.

"Yes, but you didn't look into the casket," Barbara answered. Kara blinked.

"I don't make a habit in looking into people's caskets with my X-Ray vision," Kara said. That was a tad bit too morbid for her tastes.

"You're not arguing about the fact that he might have faked his own death, though?" Barbara asked.

"Anything is possible, I guess, but if he's still out there, he's not going to stay hidden for long," Kara admitted. "I suppose the Internet has been blowing up with a lot of Lex is alive and here's why, theories?"

"It's only the second most popular theory, other than the fact that Superwoman and Lex were secret lovers and when they broke up, Lex lost his mind," Barbara said. Kara gave her a rather pointed look. "That theory doesn't have any basis in reality. Well, perhaps in Lex's mind, it might, because he's obsessed with her."

Claire and Lex were friends for a long time and Kara supposed that Lex had been holding out hope for more. He had been scarily obsessed with her. Claire didn't bat for his team though and Lex might have snapped because of that.

"There must be a way to restore her powers," Kara said. Kara raised her hand and they went silent.

The waitress approached their booth and gave them their orders.

Kara held a device in the palm of her hand that muted out all noise past their booth. No one could hear them past a certain area, well unless they had super hearing, which Kara did. Regardless of that fact, they had to wait for the waitress to get out of earshot.

"Do you think that she might be able to help?" Barbara asked. "Lara, I mean."

"It's worth a shot," Kara admitted. She turned towards Donna. "Perhaps there is something on Themscrycira that could help Claire as well?"

It was then where Donna looked at Kara. "Maybe, I'm going to have to ask Diana when she comes back. She might already be on the search for something herself, but it can't hurt to ask."

"No, it can't," Kara admitted. She folded her legs together. "I suppose that a trip to the Fortress wouldn't be the worst idea. I'd have to get Claire up there and I suppose that I have to speak to get her permission to visit it."

"Why would you have to do that?" Barbara asked.

Kara promptly answered that line of question. "It's her Fortress."

Kara wasn't sure whether or not she was keyed in. All of the times she visited the Fortress, she had been with Claire.

"If we only had the gold Kryptonite," Barbara said. "And if we knew that it was man made or not?"

Kara raised her eyebrow. That was an interesting theory. Lex could have found a way to use the right chemicals to transmute regular Green Kryponite into Gold K. Rao only knew that stuff was easier to get ahold of than candy and Lex must have stockpiled enough of it to sacrifice for his experiments.

She really wished that her mother was here to shed some light on this. The AI containing her mother was damaged beyond repair though and had locked up. Lara and Kara couldn't find a way to restore Alura and add her to the Fortress.

Perhaps in time, they would. Now, Kara finished up her lunch. Barbara was willing to share some of her insight about why Lex might not be dead.

Kara honestly didn't know and there was no way to find out. Especially since whoever was in that casket, whether it was Lex or not, had been cremated and his ashes had been spread over a field in Smallville. The same field where Claire's ship crashed and Lex lost his hair. The cause of his obsession continued even in death.

'Old habits die hard,' Kara thought. She finished up her soup in an absent minded way.

It was oddly unsettling that she didn't run into anything, other than a pickpocket. One would think that with the downfall of Superwoman, the criminals would be coming out of the woodwork to cause shit.

"Be careful with that, you mooks. If any of you break that, I'll end up breaking your skull."

A group of goons hauled a large crate out of what appeared on the outside to be a milk truck. Given the nature of these gentlemen hauling the crate out, they were the last people that you would want delivering you milk.

A dark haired middle aged man with a grizzled face dressed in a three piece brown suit stared. He wouldn't be winning any prizes in a beauty pageant that was for sure. His name was Bruno Mannheim. He was nicknamed "Ugly" because he wasn't winning any first prizes in a beauty pageant.

Ugly Mannheim watched the goons from his particular faction of Intergang. Now that the big boss was in prison, Luthor was dead, and Superwoman was out of commission, now was the perfect time to strike.

"What the hell is in the box?" one of the goons grumbled. He could feel the sheer weight of it about to give way. His muscles strained when he tried to hold it up.

"Careful with it, careful," Mannheim grumbled. His tone was such that he was not going to piss around. If they dropped that box, they would be fucked in all of the wrong ways.

The goons struggled to carry the box, despite the fact that it was extremely heavy and they panted underneath the weight of it.

The goons put down the crate. Mannheim walked over with a crowbar and pried the crate open.

There were several high tech weapons in the crate that looked like something out of Star Wars.

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg," Mannheim informed his men. "We've got even more coming in. If Superwoman got killed in that explosion, that means her little sister or whatever the fuck she is, she's going to be causing some shit. And all of her caped friends, all of them are going to meet the business end of this."

"Where did you get this, Mr. Mannheim?" one of the goons asked with wide eyes.

"My dear sweet Granny got them for me," Mannheim said smoothly.

The goons grumbled, thinking that they weren't getting a straight answer from their boss. They watched another truck pull up with more goodies on board.

"Got something real special in there, it's going to tip the scales. Intergang has been running scared by these caped creeps for too long. About time we show them who rules Metropolis."

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